Engine cleaning

**Drucru22** · 03-12-2010, 11:50 AM

I've seen this done before in person, but I always wondered if spraying water on a warmed engine would crack or warp hot engine parts like headers etc.

**starh4x** · 03-12-2010, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by RAZ_76

Cover the intake if you have open filter and just spray it with engine de-greaser, use a brush and then rinse. Nothing to it.

do what raz said this is the proper way to clean an engine bay.
I've seen the car groomers at work do this alot.

**02redgalant** · 03-12-2010, 01:45 PM

Originally Posted by DOHCstunr

Go to the autoparts store and get a large can of their CHEAPEST aerosol tire shine. HAS to be aerosol.

Spray down your ENTIRE engine bay. i mean every single square inch of wiring harness, piping, metal, it doesn't matter. every square inch from every angle. Use the ENTIRE can.
Until your engine bay looks like its 4" deep in snow. Belts, alternator,distributor, doesn't matter. EVERYTHING.

Once its all on there, wait for the foam to dissolve on its own, then immediately hop in your car and drive straight to the do it yourself car wash bay at your nearest car wash.

Pop your hood and pressure wash the shit out of it with soap and water. you can use the degreaser if you like but at this point its not necessary.

Blast every square inch of yoru engine bay, wires, hoses, belts, alternator whatever. (your engine needs to be hot when you do this step)

Once its done just drive home hard to evaporate all of the water. when you get home pop the hood and admire your engine bay.
It should look brand spanking new. If for any reason there are any water spots on the painted surfaces, just use a microfiber towel and some detail spray. they will wipe right off.

It won't be dripping with silicone or anything. all of your plastics will look factory new, your hoses will look new, your metal will have a nice soft gloss.

Basically how this works is the foaming aerosol tire shine has surfactants in it that will emulsify all of the dirt oil and grime and lift it off the surface. Silicone will remain on the surface, and the dirt will float on top of it.
when you pressure wash it you will spray the dirt off(that no longer has a bond because of the silicone) the dirt rinses off easily, and of course all of the excess silicone will be rinsed off as well.

Once you are done all of the dry plastics will now be treated and reconditioned. your engine will look awesome, and for quite a while any new dirt will be repelled.

did this method my Engine Bay looks new..no problems with starting the car, or anything

**E_Emerson88** · 03-18-2010, 05:28 PM

okay i did this today cuz i was bored and for you who dont trust our senior members here you are.

before:

All the tire cleaner:

After wards [still wet though]:

the pics are crappy cell pics but you get the idea

**mrg7243** · 03-18-2010, 05:38 PM

hmm i really cant tell cause of the pics so im not dissing your method just cant see enough to say ay or nay, your "dirty" engine bay is cleaner than mine

**E_Emerson88** · 03-18-2010, 05:41 PM

it wasn't THAT dirty, but it was dirty to me. i didnt like a dirty car. ill try and take some new pics tomorrow so you can see how it came out better.

**03-Galant-ES** · 03-18-2010, 07:18 PM

looks cleaner, but pics suck lol so cant tell much of the difference. Mine isnt too dirty at all, but its driving me nuts I usually clean my engine every 1st weekend of spring and 1st weekend of summer, but I have so many wires that are just everywhere right now I dont want to spray them until I redo heads and secure them properly.

**keith6110** · 03-18-2010, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by DOHCstunr

Go to the autoparts store and get a large can of their CHEAPEST aerosol tire shine. HAS to be aerosol.

Spray down your ENTIRE engine bay. i mean every single square inch of wiring harness, piping, metal, it doesn't matter. every square inch from every angle. Use the ENTIRE can.
Until your engine bay looks like its 4" deep in snow. Belts, alternator,distributor, doesn't matter. EVERYTHING.

Once its all on there, wait for the foam to dissolve on its own, then immediately hop in your car and drive straight to the do it yourself car wash bay at your nearest car wash.

Pop your hood and pressure wash the shit out of it with soap and water. you can use the degreaser if you like but at this point its not necessary.

Blast every square inch of yoru engine bay, wires, hoses, belts, alternator whatever. (your engine needs to be hot when you do this step)

Once its done just drive home hard to evaporate all of the water. when you get home pop the hood and admire your engine bay.
It should look brand spanking new. If for any reason there are any water spots on the painted surfaces, just use a microfiber towel and some detail spray. they will wipe right off.

It won't be dripping with silicone or anything. all of your plastics will look factory new, your hoses will look new, your metal will have a nice soft gloss.

Basically how this works is the foaming aerosol tire shine has surfactants in it that will emulsify all of the dirt oil and grime and lift it off the surface. Silicone will remain on the surface, and the dirt will float on top of it.
when you pressure wash it you will spray the dirt off(that no longer has a bond because of the silicone) the dirt rinses off easily, and of course all of the excess silicone will be rinsed off as well.

Once you are done all of the dry plastics will now be treated and reconditioned. your engine will look awesome, and for quite a while any new dirt will be repelled.

Im going to try this and spread the word if it works.. im extremely excited about this.. i have to look at a dirty bay all the time lol!! Thanks for the info, i'll check back in after.

**IVORY_G** · 03-19-2010, 01:25 AM

I have sprayed my engine bay plenty of times as well and have a few things that I would advise.

1. Dont spray too much water at your spark plug wires, one time I did and some water got into the spark plug channel and the car started missing and sputtering until I figured it out and took an air hose to the channel to disperse all water.

2. Dont spray near any Aftermarket Car Audio Fuses or Circuit Breakers. I did one time and my circuit breaker wasnt waterproof, and it fried. Had to buy a new one. It sucked, LOL!

3. I would just take the precaution like I do to protect your cone filter. If you're using a factory airbox your fine, dont worry about it. But what I do that easy is as pie with my cone filter is:
Get a plastic grocery bag, cover the filter, then tie a knot at the MAF Adapter. Its pretty much safe at that point if you tie a good knot, never had an issue from there.

4. Watch out for any bare wires that may be exposed from loose wire harness looms. I took a car I had one time to a Car Wash for them to do my engine bay, they sprayed my engine bay and a wire got wet that was linked to my brake system which caused my emergency brake light to stay on for damn near 3 months. Had me pissed as ever, but it finally went away after I changed the master cylinder resevoir which had an electrical plug to it.

So moral of the story, DO be mindful and careful of what your spraying, bcz some of your wires or wire looms may be old and deteriorating, and or anything else eletrical, which can leave the opportunity to get something wet that will short out.

Stick with the concentrating most of water at the block, water and coolant resevoirs, headers, intake piping, firewall, but simply rinse off everything else eletrical with due regard.

**dimushor** · 04-04-2010, 12:31 AM

so would it work if i just rinse the foam with a hose of water, without high pressure?

**E_Emerson88** · 04-04-2010, 04:44 AM

yup, thats what i did

**KaziKai** · 07-21-2010, 11:34 PM

Hey Wouldnt the battery get damaged when you get water on it? like the pos and neg with water touching it? can I just put a bag on it to be safe?

**deziking** · 07-24-2010, 06:37 PM

At the shop I used to work at they had a pressure washer. So what they taught me to do was spray the engine bay down completely with purple cleaner soak it and then turn the car on and use the pressure wash to clean everything off and of course use air blower and blow out all the left over water.

**beam514** · 07-24-2010, 06:46 PM

I actually performed this prior to MOD to get my bay nice and clean . I actually just used my garden hose with a pressure nozzle and it worked just fine but keep in mind, you want to minimize the amount of oil runoff going to the storm drains. I did this because I cleaned the bay at a station with water recycling about a month prior, so most of the oil was already off. I covered the battery and my cone filter, then sprayed everything down with the tire foam and scrubbed whatever I needed to with an old tooth brush. Then I rinsed off with the garden hose, wiped as much water off as I could, then went for a nice drive to dry things off. Once I was back and the bay was cooled down, I used to Armorall plastic/vinyl dressup to get all the hoses and plastic looking fresh. Now the bay looks great :)

**OMEGA PHX** · 07-24-2010, 07:29 PM

In the original post of DOHCstunr says tire SHINE aerosol, but I imagine he meant tire foam since he talks about snow looking foam, and many of you say tire foam, I think I'm going to try it but with my garden hose, Im gonna cover the alternator, the ccfl ballasts and the amp fuse, or is it safe to spray the alternator, since DOHC doesn't say anything.

**beam514** · 07-24-2010, 07:36 PM

I left my alternator uncovered. I wouldn't go soaking it, but I think it's okay to leave it uncovered. If you want to be safe though, you could just easily put a plastic bag over it. Also, if you use the garden hose, try not to get to thick of stream going, if that makes any sense.. haha just try to minimize soaking I guess

**mblood1** · 07-24-2010, 09:07 PM

I work at a car wash and I tried this after work one day. My engine bay was clean and my intake was covered. When I started my car my drive worked for about 25 feet then stopped working. Reverse worked fine. After about an hour my drive would work intermittently and on the way home i had to stop multiple times to restart my car because that seemed to help drive kick in. Engine code was thrown during this i ran the code and it came up as over 11 circuit faults. Car dried over night and was fine the next day

**beam514** · 07-25-2010, 12:35 AM

hmmm sounds like you might have some wires exposed? either that or too much water gathered in one spot? I would make sure your wiring isn't chewed up though